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Beginner Guide Part VII: Knowledge Appendix and Introduction to Mid-level Gameplay
Welcome to Swords & Potions! an online shop management game in which your goal is to become the greatest shopkeeper of Tomagar by taking care of all kinds of customers in a RPG-like world. Indeed, you will meet Knights, Healers, and many more, browsing through your store and willing to buy your valuables to make their quest expeditions easier. This useful short chapter is designed to tell you about things that haven't been told about previously in order to keep it as concise as possible. Meanwhile, you will also be given hints on how to manage your shop's particular moments such as moving (and the few days after moving), guilds and improvements, some quests, and some other things you might want to do to keep yourself playing through the routine that will shortly settle in your game. Or click here to get back to the table of contents and avoid the massive SPOILERS. It is assumed you reached at least either level 11 or are steadily playing in the City Gates district. Moving to upper districts As you may have seen when you moved to the City Gates, moving to higher districts have, besides a reputation level requirement, a one-time moving fee and a daily rent to pay. Knowing this, there are two things you'll have to keep in mind until you reach the last district, Palace: * Always have a good buffer to afford a couple of days rent and salaries. Buying an improvement or a recipe, no matter how good it is, and leaving yourself with not enough bucks to pay your workers at the end of the day is the worst mistake you could do. Avoid bankruptcy at all costs, unless you don't mind spending tokens. * When you're about to hit your district's max level, stock up money. How much is subjective, as some people would recommend keeping a buffer as low as 7 times (new rent + salaries) after moving, while others wouldn't move before having twice or thrice the same amount. If you really want to be safe, keep 7 times (new rent + salaries) + fee for moving back to the district you're about to leave, although it shouldn't be too much trouble if your shopkeeper's skills are nicely distributed. Also, after a few days in your new district, you will undergo a strong nerf as your customers suddenly become harder to please, want items you don't have more often and are less willing to accept another suggested item. Thus, there are some other things to consider once you've moved: * Stockpiling items isn't as useful as people would think. Unless, of course, you've spent a hundred days researching items worth quite a lot of money and are stockpiling those to make sure you can at least make profit every day. * Even then, as items prices grow much faster than rents, selling only 2 or 3 items should be enough to make profit. Stockpiling them is a waste of time as you could easily produce them while you are in the new district. Quality over quantity is a concept you should try to follow in this game. * People will not always ask for items you have, but when they do, it's randomly chosen among what they can equip from your assortment. This means you should get rid of any cheap item you might still have (because you bought it, or stockpiled too many, etc.) whatever the offered price is. * You could also give out the item for a quest if you don't have anything that matches the requested item. * On the contrary, an expensive item you might have earned from a quest is best staying is your shop if the offered price to market value ratio isn't as high as the average. Plot quests often reward you with a damn stupid musical instrument, which only Bards and Singing Axes would buy. * Improvements can also heavily balance things in your favor (this is particularly true until level 100 or so), as they'll "invisibly" add points to your shopkeeper's skills. If you can afford it, it might be a good idea to buy the desk, draperies, floor and door in priority (and in that order as well). One of each per move should make your life easier as long as you don't risk bankruptcy for those. Plot quests should provide enough money to buy them at convenient times. * Craftspower improvements are a good asset if you are keeping your workers at a low level. Prioritize your blacksmith and tailor, and proceed for sorceress and carpenter if they can't keep up with the demand. However, you'll need other people to help you build them. For that to happen, you'll need to join (or eventually create) a guild. Guilds (under construction) For an all around-explanation about guilds, just click on the link.